Auguste R. Lindt (Switzerland): 1956–1960

"When one deals with refugees there are no general remedies, only individual solutions can fit a living human being."

Auguste Lindt worked as a foreign correspondent for various European newspapers during the 1930s and served in the neutral Swiss army during the Second World War. Later, he chaired the UNICEF Executive Committee, and from 1953 was Switzerland's observer to the United Nations.

Almost immediately after his appointment as High Commissioner, he mobilised support for some 200,000 Hungarians who had fled due to the Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Soon after, he initiated an assistance programme for the thousands displaced during the Algerian war of independence. Lindt's diplomatic handling of these sensitive situations did much to ensure states' acceptance of UNHCR as an organisation with worldwide responsibilities.